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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28304595">Meddling</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/F117_Nighthawk/pseuds/F-117%20Nighthawk'>F-117 Nighthawk (F117_Nighthawk)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Mass Effect Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Biotic Shepard (Mass Effect), Earthborn (Mass Effect), F/M, Fluff, Joker means well, Light Angst, Light renegade scarring, Meddling, Sleepy Cuddles, and he does well!, post Priority: Citadel II</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 14:49:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,677</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28304595</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/F117_Nighthawk/pseuds/F-117%20Nighthawk</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>EDI and Joker enlist Kaidan's help in ensuring Shepard gets some sleep in her bed, for once.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>EDI/Jeff "Joker" Moreau, Jeff "Joker" Moreau &amp; Female Shepard, Kaidan Alenko/Female Shepard</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Meddling</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello and welcome to the semi-annual "NIghthawk's replaying Mass Effect so here's a fic" fic, this time featuring my latest Shep, who is actually a different shep than my last fic like this, but I think that one works for both of them. Here we're pretending that Shep has always been able to charge, she just didn't use it often because it's exhausting. Cerberus's L5s take care of that problem.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Kaidan yawns and rubs his eyes, wondering how many reports he can get away with not reading tonight. Somehow he’s fallen into the </span>
  <em>
    <span>Normandy’s</span>
  </em>
  <span> empty XO position, which means he ends up with the reports Shepard doesn’t have time to deal with because she’s trying to wrangle entire governments. Only one in the pile he has left looks interesting: a report on how the new thermal pipe Adams and crew installed led to new mass effect capacitors. The rest he’s two minutes away from tossing in the trash. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He’s saved by a strangely hesitant voice from his omnitool. “Major Alenko?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes, EDI?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The Commander seems to have… fallen asleep in a rather uncomfortable position.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kaidan frowns, wondering why exactly EDI is telling him this. “Where?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“At her desk in her cabin. Given her recent history of night terrors, I believe it would be wise to move her to her bed.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His first thought is </span>
  <em>
    <span>ah,</span>
  </em>
  <span> and the second is </span>
  <em>
    <span>night terrors?</span>
  </em>
  <span> He hasn’t slept in the captain’s cabin with her since he got back, never the time to have that conversation; just the thought of her lying there all alone, wracked by nightmares with no one but EDI to try and get her out of them pains his heart. “And you’d like me to help out?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I was going to do it myself, but Jeff suggested she would prefer, I quote, “the Major’s warm, strong arms to whisk her to bed.””</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kaidan laughs and stands up, abandoning the stack of datapads. “Alright, EDI, I’ll go help her. And tell Joker to stop meddling.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Joker’s voice joins EDI on his comm. He sounds like he’s grinning. “No can do, Major. I reserve my right as Shep’s best friend to meddle with her love life, </span>
  <em>
    <span>especially</span>
  </em>
  <span> when her interest is now a fellow Spectre who can flaunt fraternization regs with the best of them.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kaidan rolls his eyes and steps into the elevator. “I think Garrus, Liara, Tali, and let’s not forget</span>
  <em>
    <span> Wrex,</span>
  </em>
  <span> would fight you for that title.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He’s pretty sure that Joker pales at the thought of Wrex trying to fight him. The krogan may have mellowed out a bit in the past three years, but he wouldn’t dare go easy on the pilot. “Wrex can have it. Everyone else can fight him.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“At least you still have </span>
  <em>
    <span>some</span>
  </em>
  <span> sense of self-preservation. Can you open the door, EDI?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Of course. Logging you out, Major.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The door to Shepard’s cabin opens as his comm clicks off. Most of the light in the room is cast by the fish tank, jellyfish bobbing silently up and down. The light above Shepard’s desk is off, whether because of her or EDI, Kaidan doesn’t know, but it means the only light on her face is an eerie orange emanating from her scars. He sighs and stops next to her. Her head is resting on crossed arms, red hair falling in her face, fanning across the glowing scars in a way that doesn’t even attempt to dim them. The scars are the worst he’s ever seen them, even worse than after she was arrested after the fiasco that left the Bahak system reduced to ashes. Chakwas said something about them being connected to her stress levels, and with that comparison, Kaidan has to wonder how much she’s doing that she isn’t telling anyone about.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>No </span>
  <em>
    <span>wonder</span>
  </em>
  <span> she fell asleep on her desk.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kaidan reaches out and brushes her hair back behind her ear. He spends a moment trying to figure out the best way to pick her up without waking her before her eyes blink open and remove the question. “K’d’n?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey,” he whispers. “Let’s move you off your desk, yeah?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Mmm.” Shepard closes her eyes again, and Kaidan shifts around so he can lift her up. She barely reacts, sleepily glaring up at him as he carries her bridal style down to her bed. “I c’n walk.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I know you can.” He’s actually pretty sure that if he let her walk down the stairs right now, she’d faceplant into them, but it’s saying it that counts. She isn’t struggling beyond that half-hearted protest, and in fact, seems to be trying to snuggle into his arms. When he sits her down on the bed, she straight-up lets out a </span>
  <em>
    <span>whine</span>
  </em>
  <span> at the loss of contact. “Come on,” Kaidan says, clamping down a lovestruck laugh, “you don’t want to sleep in your BDUs.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She huffs but starts yanking her coat off. “Slept in them before.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And was it comfortable?” he asks, turning towards her closet to pull out a pair of sweats and a t-shirt that looks two sizes too big for her. He tosses them to her and turns to the fish tank to give her some semblance of privacy as she changes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...Not really,” Shepard finally admits. “Nothing will ever compare to that time we had to sleep in armor in the middle of a Tuchanka wilderness, though.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kaidan turns back with an incredulous look. “You </span>
  <em>
    <span>what?”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ask Grunt sometime. There’s a reason that keystone was nowhere near the current population centers.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kaidan shakes his head in exasperation as he kicks her boots to the end of the bed. “Are you sure you’re not half krogan or something?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shepard laughs. “We </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> have a krogan merc with the Reds for a while. No idea how he got to Earth. Taught me a thing or two about biotics.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He freezes halfway to her laundry bin. The sudden image of a tiny Aubine Shepard attempting to charge a krogan triple her height as he laughs and tells her to try again pops into his mind. “Wait. Did you learn to charge from a </span>
  <em>
    <span>krogan?”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shepard leans back against the pillows with a grin. “Maybe.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That explains </span>
  <em>
    <span>way</span>
  </em>
  <span> too much.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They grin at each other in silence, and for a moment, Kaidan can forget the war ravaging their home planet, forget the fact that they’re heading towards another war the quarians started at the worst possible time, forget she almost died on Omega a week ago, forget Alchera and Horizon and every other bad thing and just bask in a quiet, happy moment. It’s over all too soon, and he awkwardly clears his throat. “Well, I, uh, just came up here to make sure you were in bed, so I’ll, uh--”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Kaidan.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His mouth snaps shut at her quiet word. “Yes?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you--can you stay?” The </span>
  <em>
    <span>please, don’t leave me alone,</span>
  </em>
  <span> is unspoken but written in her eyes, the vulnerability in her face he’s one of the few to have ever seen. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It’s not even a question. Kaidan kicks his boots off next to hers and sits down to shrug out of his shirt and toss his belt somewhere he hopes he’ll be able to find it in the morning. Shepard shifts the sheets around so they can both slip under them before rolling over and pressing up against his side. He lets out a content sigh and turns to pull her closer, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. She hums, already halfway back asleep. “Sleep tight, Aubine.”</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Told</span>
  </em>
  <span> you it’d work!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I believe the Major told you to ‘stop meddling.’”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Joker waves a hand at the security cam footage displayed next to his controls. “Aw, come on, EDI, look at them! Finally cuddled up in a lovenest as they should be.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>EDI does look at the screen, even though she’s the one controlling the camera. “I do admit that your suggestion to send the Major was the correct choice.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh-huh. I am </span>
  <em>
    <span>always</span>
  </em>
  <span> correct when it comes to love advice.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>EDI raises an eyebrow. “Several people on this ship, Shepard included, have told me </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> to go to you for love advice. That has been the correct course of action when said advice is concerning anyone </span>
  <em>
    <span>but</span>
  </em>
  <span> Shepard. Why is that?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Joker glances behind them, checking for anyone close enough to hear him before he sighs and gestures at the screen again. “Look at her, EDI. Shep--</span>
  <em>
    <span>Aubine’s</span>
  </em>
  <span> exhausted. Her scars are worse than when we picked her up after she went missing in Bahak for two days, and we all know what happened there. We’ve woken her up from night terrors practically every day since we left Earth. She’s been running herself raggeder and raggeder and not taking a </span>
  <em>
    <span>break.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>EDI considers for a moment. “So your desire to make her take a break equates to you being able to give love advice?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sorta, yeah. The difference is I’m actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>trying </span>
  </em>
  <span>with her. She deserves something stable and loving in this hell, and if I can give her anything close to that, I will.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m sensing an “and.””</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Joker leans back in his chair, still watching Shepard and Alenko drift off to sleep. “And you don’t say no to Anderson when he asks you to take care of, I quote, “the woman who might as well be his daughter.” I’d take care of her either way—she’s like the badass older sister I never had, so of </span>
  <em>
    <span>course</span>
  </em>
  <span> I’m going to. It just hits a little different when her dad’s asking you to, you know? And she likes Kaidan but is too busy with this damn war to be able to pursue that thread as much as I know she wants. So, two birds with one stone. Get her to sleep in a bed wearing actual PJs, get Kaidan to bug her into it, so they get some time together.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And perhaps the Major’s presence will make it easier for her to avoid night terrors.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“See? </span>
  <em>
    <span>Three</span>
  </em>
  <span> birds with one stone. I, EDI, am a genius.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They’re silent for a moment more, watching their friends in peaceful silence. EDI shuts the camera down once they hear a soft snore. Joker turns back to the controls to finish the last hour of his shift, figuring this is the sort of conversation that EDI needs a few minutes to shift her parameters around to accommodate.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Jeff,” she says after a few minutes, “would </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> like me to carry you to bed?”</span>
</p>
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